Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack

Belmecheri, Soumaya; Babst, Flurin; Wahl, Eugene R.; Stahle, David W.; Trouet, Valérie

doi:10.1038/nclimate2809

Cited by 167 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Additional whole-ecosystem investigations of PyC stocks will improve our understanding of PyC production in vegetation fires, and its role in the global C and PyC budgets. These data will become increasingly important given the ecologically important role of fires historically in this ecosystem type, and the expected increases in warming temperatures and record-setting droughts in the future (Belmecheri et al, 2016). These factors will likely contribute to increased burn severity and PyC formation conditions that differ from historical fires in ways that influence the physical and chemical persistence of PyC, and its role in ecosystem processes.…”

Section: Additional Data Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

et al. 2018

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Positive feedbacks between wildfire emissions and climate are expected to increase in strength in the future; however, fires not only release carbon (C) from terrestrial to atmospheric pools, they also produce pyrogenic C (PyC) which contributes to longer-term C stability. Our objective was to quantify wildfire impacts on total C and PyC stocks in California mixed-conifer forest, and to investigate patterns in C and PyC stocks and changes across gradients of fire severity, using metrics derived from remote sensing and field observations. Our unique study accessed active wildfires to establish and measure plots within days before and after fire, prior to substantial erosion. We measured pre-and post-fire aboveground forest structure and woody fuels to calculate aboveground biomass, C and PyC, and collected forest floor and 0-5 cm mineral soil samples. Immediate tree mortality increased with severity, but overstory C loss was minimal and limited primarily to foliage. Fire released 85% of understory and herbaceous C (comprising <1.0% of total ecosystem C). The greatest C losses occurred from downed wood and forest floor pools (19.3 ± 5.1 Mg ha −1 and 25.9 ± 3.2 Mg ha −1 , respectively). Tree bark and downed wood contributed the greatest PyC gains (1.5 ± 0.3 Mg ha −1 and 1.9 ± 0.8 Mg ha −1 , respectively), and PyC in tree bark showed non-significant positive trends with increasing severity. Overall PyC losses of 1.9 ± 0.3 Mg ha −1 and 0.5 ± 0

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Section: Additional Data Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

et al. 2018

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“…paleoclimate | atmospheric circulation | Holocene | climate change | North America R ecent drought intensification (1,2) and mountain snowpack declines (3,4) have raised concerns about future water shortages and wildfires throughout western North America, from the southwestern United States to Alaska (5,6). Although many lines of evidence have pointed to the impact of anthropogenic warming (3,7,8), naturally occurring atmospheric variability also contributes to the observed changes (9)(10)(11).…”

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confidence: 99%

Pacific North American circulation pattern links external forcing and North American hydroclimatic change over the past millennium

Liu

Tang

Jian

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Land and sea surface temperatures, precipitation, and storm tracks in North America and the North Pacific are controlled to a large degree by atmospheric variability associated with the Pacific North American (PNA) pattern. The modern instrumental record indicates a trend toward a positive PNA phase in recent decades, which has led to accelerated warming and snowpack decline in northwestern North America. The brevity of the instrumental record, however, limits our understanding of long-term PNA variability and its directional or cyclic patterns. Here we develop a 937-y-long reconstruction of the winter PNA based on a network of annually resolved tree-ring proxy records across North America. The reconstruction is consistent with previous regional records in suggesting that the recent persistent positive PNA pattern is unprecedented over the past millennium, but documents patterns of decadal-scale variability that contrast with previous reconstructions. Our reconstruction shows that PNA has been strongly and consistently correlated with sea surface temperature variation, solar irradiance, and volcanic forcing over the period of record, and played a significant role in translating these forcings into decadal-to-multidecadal hydroclimate variability over North America. Climate model ensembles show limited power to predict multidecadal variation in PNA over the period of our record, raising questions about their potential to project future hydroclimatic change modulated by this circulation pattern.paleoclimate | atmospheric circulation | Holocene | climate change |

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“…This increasing wildfire trend has become even steeper during the past decade, with a higher number of large wildfires (>100 km 2 ) each year in each Western state compared with the annual average from 1980 to 2000 (3). The fire problem is particularly acute in California, where a history of fire suppression (4), climate change (1,5), more extreme fire weather (6), expanding development (7), and massive wildfires (e.g., 2013 Rim Fire, 1,042 km 2 ) have caused significant socioecological impacts. Future area burned in California is projected to further increase with anthropogenic warming (8).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE

Taylor

Trouet

Skinner³

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Large wildfires in California cause significant socioecological impacts, and half of the federal funds for fire suppression are spent each year in California. Future fire activity is projected to increase with climate change, but predictions are uncertain because humans can modulate or even override climatic effects on fire activity. Here we test the hypothesis that changes in socioecological systems from the Native American to the current period drove shifts in fire activity and modulated fire-climate relationships in the Sierra Nevada. We developed a 415-y record (1600-2015 CE) of fire activity by merging a treering-based record of Sierra Nevada fire history with a 20th-century record based on annual area burned. Large shifts in the fire record corresponded with socioecological change, and not climate change, and socioecological conditions amplified and buffered fire response to climate. Fire activity was highest and fire-climate relationships were strongest after Native American depopulation-following mission establishment (ca. 1775 CE)-reduced the self-limiting effect of Native American burns on fire spread. With the Gold Rush and EuroAmerican settlement (ca. 1865 CE), fire activity declined, and the strong multidecadal relationship between temperature and fire decayed and then disappeared after implementation of fire suppression (ca. 1904 CE). The amplification and buffering of fire-climate relationships by humans underscores the need for parameterizing thresholds of human-vs. climate-driven fire activity to improve the skill and value of fire-climate models for addressing the increasing fire risk in California.anthropogenic landscapes | fire ecology | land use | regime shifts | climate variability A n increase in the extent of forest fires in the American West since the mid-1980s (1) has enhanced risks to lives, property, water quality, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services (2). This increasing wildfire trend has become even steeper during the past decade, with a higher number of large wildfires (>100 km 2 ) each year in each Western state compared with the annual average from 1980 to 2000 (3). The fire problem is particularly acute in California, where a history of fire suppression (4), climate change (1, 5), more extreme fire weather (6), expanding development (7), and massive wildfires (e.g., 2013 Rim Fire, 1,042 km 2 ) have caused significant socioecological impacts. Future area burned in California is projected to further increase with anthropogenic warming (8). With more than half of the annual federal firefighting budget already being spent suppressing fires in California (4), a sustainable system of fire management requires approaches beyond active fire suppression (9). Predicting future fire activity is challenging because humans can alter fire regimes and fire-climate relationships even if climate becomes more conducive to fire (10). Changes in socioecological systems (SESs) can modulate or even override climatic effects on fire regimes through changing land use, igniti...

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Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack

Cited by 167 publications

References 9 publications

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

Quantifying Changes in Total and Pyrogenic Carbon Stocks Across Fire Severity Gradients Using Active Wildfire Incidents

Pacific North American circulation pattern links external forcing and North American hydroclimatic change over the past millennium

Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE

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